Also thats about £50 per user, so less law fees about a tenner back each if successful
Its clever. It could be the first step to recognising unfair business practices here.
I see my friends, all the time, just flick away all their data to any website that asks. I cant understand it.
To me, what Facebook have been doing is kind of gross. Data is more valuable than oil and we are where its being extracted from. To say people signed away something that’s clearly very valuable, to that extent, knowingly, is pretty rediculous and saying something along the lines of “we tricked them fair and square” isnt really the moral defence anyone might think it is.
How could 99.9% of the world not being able to know what they were agreeing to, even if they read it, be acceptable?
I’ve just read this and I’m delighted. I have long thought that Facebook’s ‘free’ access was actually priced much higher – the storing and use of gigabytes of our personal data.
Many of us naively uploaded and updated our Facebook early on and are now trapped in the system because of it – with too much to download and understand.
> the price for getting on Facebook, which does not charge its users, is handing over personal data that generates most of the company’s income.
I thought everyone knew that, you’re getting a free service in return for giving them your data.
Given WE were exploited, how do we get a slice of those billions?
So… the argument is that Meta uses user data in ads targeting and makes money with that?
Sure, they do that. Just like literally ever other company that runs online ad auctions (many, but just to name a few: Google, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Criteo).
What is the factor that singles out Meta here?
Any payment will be token. The damage done to individuals is far more than the £50 or so that you might expect to be the “payout”. The damages are also ongoing and that is not going to be settled by simply saying have a bung and bugger off. Being sued for 2.3Bn seems like a huge matter but, in reality, it is a low cost of doing business for something as profitable as “insert rebranding” TechBroCo. It would be a much better remedy to seek a perpetual share of the profits and punitive damages – along the lines possible with the 4% of Global Turnover fine possible with GDPR. Which is never going to happen. Even through it really ought to.
I don’t know about you lot, but I’ve recently noticed that I’m being targeted by extreme right-wing and alt-right page suggestions, particularly American ones. Despite perma-blocking them whenever they show more just seem to come. It’s like I’m playing Whack’a’mole with the algorithm.
Zuck pays 10 million (a paltry fee for him) and goes back to doing the same thing.
If you or I did this on a smaller scale- we would be in prison.
This is fantastic news, I remember when one of my colleagues was looking into messaging services for our customers and one of the services he found was one that didn’t charge for the service but paid you (the company) £5 a month to use it, i.e. they made so much money from reusing your data they tried to stand out in the crowd by giving some of it up to get more customers.
I’ve only ever seen this business model once but that was just a small messaging service, in contrast, meta has spent decades building systems to harvest as much data as possible.
> A Meta spokesperson said: “People access our service for free. They choose our services because we deliver value for them and they have meaningful control of what information they share on Meta’s platforms and who with. We have invested heavily to create tools that allow them to do so
That’s just not true. Facebook can tell your sexuality, gender, age, and even more – without you telling it, and with no way for you to erase it.
I’ve heard a number of stories of queer kids being ‘outed’ because Facebook placed targeted ads about LGBT stuff on their profile, based solely on pages they’ve visited, people they’ve connected with, and creepiest of all – other websites they’ve visited that aren’t Facebook.
Clicking a button that says “oPt oUt” doesn’t actually do much, it’s mostly placebo.
It’s unlikely that it’s just a claim. Money and lawyers are likely to make that a slap on the wrist at worst though, sadly.
Are the UK users going to see any of this money as compensation? Or…?
13 comments
Opt out lawsuit?
Insert: *You Son of a Bitch, I’m In* meme
Also thats about £50 per user, so less law fees about a tenner back each if successful
Its clever. It could be the first step to recognising unfair business practices here.
I see my friends, all the time, just flick away all their data to any website that asks. I cant understand it.
To me, what Facebook have been doing is kind of gross. Data is more valuable than oil and we are where its being extracted from. To say people signed away something that’s clearly very valuable, to that extent, knowingly, is pretty rediculous and saying something along the lines of “we tricked them fair and square” isnt really the moral defence anyone might think it is.
How could 99.9% of the world not being able to know what they were agreeing to, even if they read it, be acceptable?
I’ve just read this and I’m delighted. I have long thought that Facebook’s ‘free’ access was actually priced much higher – the storing and use of gigabytes of our personal data.
Many of us naively uploaded and updated our Facebook early on and are now trapped in the system because of it – with too much to download and understand.
I’ve signed up to monitor the class action, which you can do here: http://Facebookclaim.co.uk
I’ve also followed Dr Liza Lovdahl on Twitter who you can find here: https://twitter.com/lizagormsen/status/1481863886487932929?s=21
> the price for getting on Facebook, which does not charge its users, is handing over personal data that generates most of the company’s income.
I thought everyone knew that, you’re getting a free service in return for giving them your data.
Given WE were exploited, how do we get a slice of those billions?
So… the argument is that Meta uses user data in ads targeting and makes money with that?
Sure, they do that. Just like literally ever other company that runs online ad auctions (many, but just to name a few: Google, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Criteo).
What is the factor that singles out Meta here?
Any payment will be token. The damage done to individuals is far more than the £50 or so that you might expect to be the “payout”. The damages are also ongoing and that is not going to be settled by simply saying have a bung and bugger off. Being sued for 2.3Bn seems like a huge matter but, in reality, it is a low cost of doing business for something as profitable as “insert rebranding” TechBroCo. It would be a much better remedy to seek a perpetual share of the profits and punitive damages – along the lines possible with the 4% of Global Turnover fine possible with GDPR. Which is never going to happen. Even through it really ought to.
I don’t know about you lot, but I’ve recently noticed that I’m being targeted by extreme right-wing and alt-right page suggestions, particularly American ones. Despite perma-blocking them whenever they show more just seem to come. It’s like I’m playing Whack’a’mole with the algorithm.
Zuck pays 10 million (a paltry fee for him) and goes back to doing the same thing.
If you or I did this on a smaller scale- we would be in prison.
This is fantastic news, I remember when one of my colleagues was looking into messaging services for our customers and one of the services he found was one that didn’t charge for the service but paid you (the company) £5 a month to use it, i.e. they made so much money from reusing your data they tried to stand out in the crowd by giving some of it up to get more customers.
I’ve only ever seen this business model once but that was just a small messaging service, in contrast, meta has spent decades building systems to harvest as much data as possible.
> A Meta spokesperson said: “People access our service for free. They choose our services because we deliver value for them and they have meaningful control of what information they share on Meta’s platforms and who with. We have invested heavily to create tools that allow them to do so
That’s just not true. Facebook can tell your sexuality, gender, age, and even more – without you telling it, and with no way for you to erase it.
I’ve heard a number of stories of queer kids being ‘outed’ because Facebook placed targeted ads about LGBT stuff on their profile, based solely on pages they’ve visited, people they’ve connected with, and creepiest of all – other websites they’ve visited that aren’t Facebook.
Clicking a button that says “oPt oUt” doesn’t actually do much, it’s mostly placebo.
It’s unlikely that it’s just a claim. Money and lawyers are likely to make that a slap on the wrist at worst though, sadly.
Are the UK users going to see any of this money as compensation? Or…?